Newslinks for Wednesday 11th September 2013

4pm Peter Wilding on Comment: "Europhobes will of course ignore all
this. For them the rhetoric is sexier than the reality. Butthe fact is that
the British Government has a serious reform plan, has allies to support it and
wants to push it through. If repatriation is on the agenda it is repatriation
for all, not just for one."After Barroso, reform with allies to limit EU powers is within Britain's grasp

3.15pm Local Government: "Earlier this year the United Nations Human Rights Council criticised Canada. Among those making the criticisms were representatives from the Governments of Cuba, Iran and North Korea.
Now a left wing politician from Brazil complains that our Government's housing policy breaches human rights."Scandal of the UN's attack on the spare room subsidy cut

“President Obama postponed the drive towards
conflict with Syria last night but sent a clear signal to the Assad regime and
a sceptical American nation that he is prepared to use military might if
diplomacy fails. After two days of frantic international diplomacy, he went
live on prime-time American television to directly blame the Syrian regime for
gassing children to death…But he said after some encouraging signs in recent
days he had asked Congress to pause while Russia’s plan to put Assad’s arsenal
of chemical weapons beyond use could be considered” – The
Times (£)

The humiliation of Obama as Putin swaggers
on his Moscow dunghill – Max Hastings, Daily
Mail

“Vince Cable has criticised a growing
‘complacency’ towards the economy, in a calculated swipe at George Osborne
before the Liberal Democrat conference. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary
will suggest today that Britain is not seeing ‘the kind
of growth we want’…Dr Cable will add that he sees ‘a number of dangers. One is
complacency, generated by a few quarters of good economic data’” – The Times
(£)

…but the FT says Osborne is winning the battle on
austerity

“Since
unveiling his strategy to reduce the UK’s yawning budget deficit in 2010,
George Osborne has faced immense pressure to change tack. In a replay of
Margaret Thatcher’s first-term battle in the early 1980s, an alliance of
Keynesian economists and the Labour opposition has accused the government of
choking off growth. The prophets of doom predicted years of stagnation with
soaring unemployment and falling living standards. After
a run of positive economic date, Mr Osborne has reason to feel vindicated” – Financial
Times Editorial

McLoughlin
mounts HS2 fight-back

“The
proposed high speed rail line between London and the north could boost the UK
economy by £15bn a year when it is fully opened in the 2030s, the government
will say on Wednesday, with the regions benefiting more than London.The claim,
based on an analysis by consultants KPMG, is part of a robust defence of the
£42.6bn High Speed 2 scheme that the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin
will mount in a speech to counter the rising criticism of the project” – Financial
Times

“Ed Miliband retreated from a showdown with the
unions yesterday amid warnings that he would fail to secure curbs on their
influence. After weeks of expectation that the Labour leader was going
fundamentally to change the unions’ grip on policy-making, he was accused of
backing down at the TUC conference… ‘There is no question that this is a
retreat,’ a senior figure on the Blairite wing of the party claimed – The Times
(£)

Labour’s links with the unions are its biggest
asset – Seumas Milne, Guardian

Hunt promises to boost A&E consultant
numbers at night

“The number of
senior doctors working in A&E at night is to be boosted after the Daily
Mail revealed there are only five across all of England. Health Secretary
Jeremy Hunt said a portion of the £500million being given to hospitals over the
next two years to ease A&E pressures would go towards paying consultants to
work out-of-hours. At nearly all A&E units in England consultants go home
between 8pm and midnight, leaving patients in the hands of junior doctors” – Daily
Mail

Why I’m furious
to be denied rare calves’ liver at the House of Lords – Norman Tebbit, Daily
Telegraph

IFS says benefit reforms will improve
incentives to work

“Iain Duncan
Smith’s plan to persuade millions of people that working is more
lucrative than living on benefits could succeed, Britain’s leading economic
think tank said today. Reforms will widen the gap between wages and the income
of people living on handouts, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. It added
in its report that tax increases, benefit cuts and Mr Duncan Smith’s Universal
Credit system ‘will strengthen people’s incentives to work’” – Daily
Mail

…but Cameron
casts doubt on timetable for introducing IDS’s plan

“The Prime Minister said he was not ‘religious’ about the
timetable for introducing the new benefits regime by 2017. Iain Duncan Smith,
the Work and Pensions Secretary, has repeatedly said the deadline will be met.
The Prime Minister also appeared to reject Mr Duncan Smith’s claims that civil
servants were to blame for management problems with the reforms” – Daily
Telegraph

“Actor Michael
Le Vell was celebrating his dramatic acquittal from child abuse charges last
night amid claims he was the victim of a ‘celebrity witch-hunt’. The popular
Coronation Street star, 48, walked free after a jury decided unanimously in
just four hours that he did not carry out a series of assaults on a
six-year-old girl. But Le Vell’s angry family and friends questioned why
child-sex charges were ever brought. They claimed the actor was the victim of a
hysteria prompted by last year’s Jimmy Savile scandal and accused the Crown
Prosecution Service of targeting stars” – Daily
Mail

Nigel Evans
charged with eight sexual offences

“Commons Deputy
Speaker Nigel Evans was last night charged with a string of sex attacks on
seven young men. The 55-year-old Tory MP was told he will stand trial accused
of eight offences, the most serious of which carries a maximum life penalty.
The decision to charge the openly-gay politician – a popular figure in
Westminster – came after he was arrested for a third time yesterday morning…Evans has now resigned
from his Speaker duties, but last night said he would ‘robustly’ fight to prove
his innocence from the back benches” – Daily
Mail

Will this
weekend’s meeting of Tory MPs be plotting against Cameron?

“David Cameron
suspects an innocent-sounding meeting of the Conservative Renewal group at the
Castle Hotel, Windsor, on Saturday is in reality a nest of leadership plotters.
Welcomed by local Tory MP Adam Afriyie – a moneybags figure suspected of
coveting Cameron’s job – the throng includes other Dave-averse Tories such as
Douglas Carswell, Daniel Hannan, Tim Loughton and Jesse Norman” – Ephraim
Hardcastle, Daily
Mail

And
finally…Sarah Vine (Mrs Michael Gove) celebrates the end of the holidays

“Love my
children, obviously. Love my husband, too. But honestly, having them hanging
around the house all summer is a complete nightmare. The mess, the noise, the
constant demands for food. The bellowing of the radio, the battles over the TV
remote control. The sheer amount of stuff: books, papers, toys, half-finished
homework, displaced cushions, muddy sports equipment — and the washing. Oh
Lord, the washing” – Daily
Mail

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